Retail and RFID: DENSO and RFKeeper provide new solutions

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Retail and RFID: DENSO and RFKeeper provide new solutions.

DENSO WAVE EUROPE, part of the Toyota group and specialist for modern handhelds and scanners, has partnered up with software provider RFKeeper to help retailers become omni-channel providers.

DENSO and RFKeeper set out to improve the customer experience in retail and to solve problems of the retail sector that start with large numbers: There are losses as high as 1.1 trillion dollars in over/under stock. Furthermore, supply chain errors lead to a loss of ten billion dollars. The average losses are at almost 1.5 per cent from annual revenues. In numbers, that amounts to 45 billion dollars of shrinkage globally.

The software by RFKeeper generates invaluable data, such as the number or type of items tried and conversion rates per item and customer. One method to collect and analyse data in the retail sector is the usage of RFID. Supply chain companies and retailers have recently improved their business operations by using RFID technology.

The cost of RFID tags has also been lowered and recent surveys have shown that the number of RFID tags to be issued will rapidly and widely increase worldwide. With this in focus, DENSO WAVE has worked on the development of RFID devices since the 1980s. “We developed the SP1 RFID reader that achieves the world-leading scanning speed of 700 tags per second,” says Hiroyasu Nakagawa, President and CEO at DENSO WAVE.

The package that DENSO and RFKeeper put together includes the SP1 RFID reader from DENSO, the source & tagging platform from RFKeeper, hard and soft tags, and a driver-less smart POS detacher. That way, clients who want to implement the modern RFID solution at their store, are all set to go.

How DENSO and RFKeeper optimise the Retail Sector with the SP1 RFID Scanner

By combining DENSO’s efficient RFID technology with the cloud and mobile application from RFKeeper, the inventory management of retailers can be digitalised. One of the advantages is that the RFID Inventory Management Solutions by DENSO and RFKeeper provide a greater visibility of the supply chain and minimise the risks of over/under stock, supply chain errors or shrinkage. This ultimately leads to an improved customer experience. In addition, the optimised inventory management leads to more sustainability since less waste in stock occurs and supply chains are also managed in a more sustainable way.

As collaboration partners, DENSO and RFKeeper offer a modular plug & play inventory management solution that covers the complete supply chain from factory to store. Furthermore, individual demands of the respective retailers can be met. In fact, numerous case studies show how RFKeeper has turned shops into smart stores. For instance, various clients from the retail sector have increased their stock accuracy from 75 to 99.5 per cent. Also, the shopper experience has improved in all cases.

In order to capture the data that fuels the RFKeeper solutions, the SP1 RFID scanner from DENSO comes into play: The innovative RFID scanner cannot only scan 700 tags per second, it also allows high-speed reading at distances of up to 13 meters, covering an area of up to 530 square meters. The UHF RFID reader simply requires Bluetooth pairing with a mobile computer for transferring captured data.

Digitalising Operations is Key: from Multi-Channel Provider to true Omni-Channel Retailer

RFKeeper and DENSO give retailers the ability to compete with online giants using the same set of tools. The key is to digitalise operations in the retail sector. User-friendly analytics dashboards, monitoring every item on the retailer’s supply chain or managing and navigating the daily operations with real-time insights are some of the optional functions of the Inventory Management System offered by DENSO’s partner RFKeeper.

Even though, or rather because, the Corona pandemic has had a large impact on the retail sector, decision-makers are required to change the way they operate their stores. Introducing the end-to-end solution by RFKeeper can make the much-needed difference. All in all, with RFKeeper and DENSO, the numbers speak for themselves. For clients working with the RFID-based platform, there has been a yearly uplift of five per cent, meaning the average sales increase due to RFID implementation.

The stock saving rate is as high as twelve per cent. Thanks to better live tracking of stock and store items, the shrinkage reduction can be as high as 50 per cent. However, the highest impact can be seen in the shipping validation and the inventory and stock accuracy: The operational efficiency can be increased by 100 per cent due to real-time data on every item, while the accuracy can move up from an average rate of 75 to 99 per cent. DENSO and RFKeeper help retailers drive sales and save costs. It is a collaboration that clearly supports retailers in making their operations data-driven and taking them to the next level.